#i know monster donnie's cells were decomposing and he was going to die but ignore that for the sake of me looking way too into things

[lordshroom]

I'm studying for my ecology exam and got distracted.

So natural selection increases favorable traits and decreases unfavorable traits in a population. Darwin and his birds. Survival of the fittest, yada yada.

In my notes, it's described as "favored individuals pass down their good genes to the next generation". And, being silly, thought of "Good Genes" from 2003.

And the two wolves inside me (the bio nerd and the English nerd) did a team-up, and now I'm must share their findings.

Before, "Good Genes" was just a fun, alliterative title that foreshadowed Donnie's transformation. But things get interesting when we put a "survival of the fittest" spin on the concept.

In any typical environment, an organism with a superb offensive and a strong defense, like monster Donnie, would be favored by natural selection. Hell, his brothers stand no chance against Donnie without the technology Leatherhead/ EPF provides. He's a force to be reckoned with, so much so that Bishop considers putting Donnie down when he escapes. Basically, this version of Donnie is an organism that can survive almost anything thrown at it.

One of my few complaints about these episodes was that Donnie's monster design could be used for any one of his brothers; it wasn't special to him. Maybe that's the point. Donnie is turned into a monster fit for violence and destruction, something so unDonnie that it fails to even resemble him. These "good genes" suck anything that made Donnie, Donnie out in favor of a monster.

Maybe the real good genes were his brother's perseverance and resolve to help Donnie at any cost. The turtles are strong, not because they're physically the strongest, but because they're a unit, a family. They're strongest when they combine their unique talents and work as one mind. Perhaps the good genes were the family we made along the way.